Hallelujah
by Babe Ruthless
Summary: High school fic. Gibbs' best friend Kate has just been killed by a drunk driver and he blames himself. Ziva cannot help but feel guilty for the accident that killed Kate, as she was indirectly responsible for it.
1. Chapter 1

**AU high school story. Pairings are: Ziva/Gibbs, McGee/Abby, Tony/mm, I don't know.**

The atmosphere of Stillwater High School was somber. It had only been a day since Caitlin 'Kate' Todd had died-killed tragically in a car accident by a drunk driver. Kate had been one of those people you couldn't help but like-she had been friendly, kind, compassionate, and a loyal friend. The entire school was mourning her loss, but no one felt her loss more keenly than Senior Leroy Jethro Gibbs-Jethro or Gibbs for short.

Sitting in the woodshed in his backyard, Gibbs sanded vigorously at the halfway finished wooden chair in front of him. His mind was a tangled mesh of guilt and anger-anger at the drunk driver who had killed Kate and guilty…guilty because if it hadn't been for him, Kate wouldn't have been on the road that night, and she would never have gotten into the accident.

She would still be alive now if it hadn't been for him.

Goddamn it all.

"_Hey Kate." Gibbs slurred into his cellphone. It was two 'o'clock in the morning on Sunday, and Gibbs was drunk as hell. He had spent the night hanging out with Tony and Ducky, his two closest guy friends at school, and both he and Ducky had gotten smashed on bourbon. Tony had driven Ducky home from their spot just outside of town where they went to drink, but Gibbs had no ride. Who better to call than his good friend Kate, who would always go whenever a friend needed her?_

"_Hi Gibbs." Kate didn't sound remotely tired, despite how early it was. Probably was up late studying, Gibbs thought to himself. "What's up?"_

"_Can you come pick me up, pleeaassee?" he asked. "I'm at our drinking spot and I'm really, really drunk and I need a ride home. Can you help me out, Kate?"_

_On the other side of the phone, Kate laughed. "Sure Gibbs." She promised. Gibbs could practically hear her smiling through the phone. "I'll come pick you up. I'll be there in about twenty minutes.'Kay?" _

"_Mmkay." _

"_Alright. I'll see you in a while. Bye Gibbs."_

That was the last time Gibbs had spoken to Kate. It was the last time anyone had spoken to Kate. She had died fifteen minutes later, on her way to pick Gibbs up.

It was his fault his good friend was dead.

Gibbs sanded the chair leg harder-too hard. The chair leg snapped clean in half, the broken off half clattering to the floor noisily.

"GODDAMN IT!" he roared, standing up from his seat as he dropped the sand paper. He stared at the ruined chair angrily, breathing heavily. It was ruined. All his hard work that he had put into making the chair was wasted, just because he was a fucking screw-up.

If Kate had been here, she would have put a comforting hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. She probably would have told him something like, 'Don't worry, I'm sure it can be fixed. It'll be fine. I promise.' And he would have believed her.

Still breathing heavily, Gibbs sat back down in his chair, reaching down to pick up the broken piece from the floor. He stared at it for a moment before setting it down next to the rest of the chair. He put his head in his hands and unwillingly, started to cry, his grief overpowering him briefly.

_Oh, Kate_, he thought to himself miserably. _I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry._

**/3 /3 /3 /3 /3 /3 /3 /3 /3 /3**

Kate's parents had asked Gibbs to speak at her funeral, which was taking place on Tuesday, two days after the accident. They must not have known that it was him Kate had been going to pick up. He hadn't known what to say to them at first-he had still been in a state of shock when they asked-but ultimately had said no. He couldn't speak about her at her own funeral, not when it was his fault she was dead.

Tony spoke about Kate at the funeral instead.

At the funeral, Gibbs sat in the second pew of the church, by Abby and Tim McGee, both of whom had been good friends with Kate-Abby especially. The normally cheerful Goth cried silently into Gibbs' shoulder the entire time. Gibbs let her, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her closer to him in a comforting embrace. On the other side of Abby sat McGee, who blinked his baby blue red rimmed eyes rapidly, trying to hold back his tears. Ducky sat on the other side of Gibbs, the Scottish teenager looking sad and somber.

Standing behind the podium at the front of the church, Tony paused his speech to swallow back the tears that threatened to undo him. He and Kate-they had had something special going on before she died. They had been best friends, partners-but they had slowly been moving towards a relationship that was something more than friendship. He had loved her-he just wasn't sure what kind of love he had felt for her. And now they would never know if they had had something more than friendship between them. It's not fair, he thought to himself bitterly.

Tony took a deep breath and continued on with his speech.

**/3 /3 /3 /3 /3 /3 /3**

"To Kate," Gibbs said respectfully, raising his glass of bourbon in the air. "The best girl ever to attend Stillwater High, and the best friend any of us could ever be lucky enough to have."

"To Kate," Abby, Tim, Tony, and Ducky echoed, raising their respective drinks in the air as well, and drinking from them. Kate's funeral had ended three hours ago. The five of them sat in their drinking area just outside of town, remembering Kate, and drinking to her memory.

As Gibbs stared at his group of closest friends, he could not help but notice how Kate's death had changed their group. There was a hole in the group now, a missing piece that only Kate could fill, and would now remain forevermore empty. And it was Gibbs' fault. Guilt and sadness colored his thoughts.

_I'm so sorry, Kate._

**AN: I can't promise how regular chapter updates will be, but I'll try my best to post a chapter every other week or so.**

**Next Chapter: Ziva comes to school…**


	2. Chapter 2

**AU high school story. Pairings are: Ziva/Gibbs, McGee/Abby, Tony/mm, I don't know.**

Ziva David did not know what to make of Stillwater High School.

It was a small school, and completely different from her school back in Israel. There was no uniform here-something she appreciated-and unlike her old school (which had been an all-girls school), there were boys-something she also appreciated…

She stood still in the middle of the hallway, as her classmates moved around her, the hallway a crowded mess as her classmates tried to get to their classes on time. Suspicious glances were thrown at her from many different students, and Ziva sighed-no doubt the facts that she was Middle Eastern and this was a small town, everyone would automatically assume that she was a terrorist and dislike her, in spite of the fact that she was most definitely not a terrorist. But there was not a doubt in her mind that once the student body discovered who her brother was and what he had done to their classmate, they would all hate her regardless, just for being associated with him.

Ziva looked down at the paper in her hand-her class schedule. Where was the English III classroom? She looked around the hallway helplessly, when all of the sudden, someone slammed into her.

"_Benzona!_" Ziva swore in Hebrew as she fell, her rear stinging painfully as she hit the ground, her books and papers scattering across the tile floor. And because all of her new classmates were apparently-what was the American word for it?-jackasses, not one of them bothered to stop and maybe help her pick them up, or even help her back onto to her feet. Instead, they continued to walk, trampling her stuff in the process.

Ziva muttered to herself in Hebrew as she got on her hands and knees and attempted to collect her stuff. She did not bother to look for her assailant, instead focusing on trying to get all her stuff together.

She could hear a group of people laughing somewhere nearby-laughing at her. Their laughter seemed to cut her to the core.

Ziva stood and her gaze landed on the group of people laughing. They laughed harder once they saw she was looking. She raised her chin and hardened her already icy cold gaze.

The group of students stopped laughing.

Not saying a word, Ziva turned around, and began walking in the other direction. _To hell with going to class,_ she thought, trying to keep her composure as she hurried towards the auditorium-the only room she had cared enough to remember its location when the principal had given her and her father a tour of the school before she had enrolled. _I am not going to put up with this shit._

The bell had already rang by the time she reached the auditorium. Pushing the door open, she practically ran inside, biting back tears of anger and frustration. Ziva slammed the door shut behind her. She hadn't been in the school more than fifteen minutes, but already she hated it. She hated the people who went to school here for being absolute jackasses. She hated her brother Ari for what he had done to that poor dead girl Caitlin, for all the pain and grief he had caused her family and friends. She hated her father for forcing her to move to Bum-fuck Egypt Stillwater in the first place.

Too angry to think, Ziva began to pound her fists against the wall nearest to her. It hurt her hands, but the more she beat the wall, the better she felt. After about five minutes of taking her anger out on the wall, she stopped, slumping to the ground in an unhappy heap. She wiped away the few stray tears that had slipped out onto her cheeks, taking deep, calming breaths at the same time. She sat on the ground for a moment, blankly surveying the auditorium. Her brown eyes lit up when she spotted the piano on the stage.

**{Page Break}**

Skipping first hour was a tradition for Gibbs, Abby, Tony, Tim, Ducky, and when she was still alive, Kate.

The six of them-the five of them now-always made a point to skip first hour at least once a week together. They would go to the auditorium and do whatever they wanted to do. Sometimes they would mess around with the piano, sometimes they would do homework that they should have done the night before, and sometimes they would just hang out and talk. And once or twice, they had even gotten ahold of some weed and smoked it in there-but Kate hadn't taken part in that. She had been very much against drugs and alcohol.

The day after Kate's funeral, it seemed only appropriate to skip first hour in her memory. Wednesday morning, Gibbs was the first to arrive at the auditorium, about three minutes after the first bell had already rung. He paused outside of the auditorium door, craning his head towards it. It sounded as if someone was playing the piano that rested on the stage.

Very quietly, Gibbs opened the door slowly, careful not to make a sound. He stepped inside and his eyes landed on the girl playing the piano on the stage, her back facing him. He quietly shut the door behind him, and standing there silently, he listened to the song she was singing. It was a song he recognized-one of his favorites, actually.

"…Baby I've been here before, I know this room, I've walked this floor, I used to live alone before I knew you, I've seen your flag on the Marble Arch, love is not a victory march, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah…"

Her voice had a throaty, seductive quality to it, and it sounded as if she had an accent of some kind. She had a beautiful voice. And listening to her sing, for the first time since Kate had died, Gibbs felt as if though his guilt had lessened.

"…Maybe there's a God above, all I ever learned from love was how to shoot at someone who out drew you, and it's not a cry you can hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah…Hallelujah…Hallelujah…Hallelujah…"

Gibbs listened to the girl, entranced by her voice, and the song she was singing. She sounded so...sad and angry and frustrated, and all of her emotion was pouring out through her voice, compelling him to listen in an awed silence. Her voice trailed off into silence, signaling the end of the song. Gibbs wished she wouldn't stop singing that the song would never end. In the silence that followed, Gibbs clapped loudly, walking forward towards the stage.

The girl jumped up off of the piano bench in surprise, turning around to stare at him incredulously. "How long have you been listening?" she demanded in her accented voice. Gibbs couldn't place where her accent was from-but it sounded exotic.

"Since about the middle of the song." Gibbs answered. He walked closer, trying to get a better look at the girl. He doubted that she was someone he knew-he would have recognized her by her accent if he did. "You have a beautiful voice." He stopped in front of the stage, looking up at her.

The girl had a beautiful face to match her beautiful voice. Her skin was a lovely shade of golden brown and was flawless. She had eyes the color of melted chocolate, and a strong face. She watched Gibbs cautiously, as if she was expecting him to attack her or something like that.

"I'm Gibbs." He offered, smiling slightly at her.

"Ziva David." She replied, still watching him warily.

"It's nice to meet you." Gibbs said. "Are you skipping first hour too?"

"Not intentionally." Ziva smiled, her tone of voice dry. "I did not plan on skipping first hour my first day of school in America, but unforeseen circumstances forced me to."

Gibbs looked at Ziva carefully. Despite her hard exterior, the girl looked like she could use a friend. "Some of my friends are going to join me in the auditorium in a few minutes. Would you like to join us?"

Ziva looked hesitant at first, but then nodded. "Very well."

**AN: okay, so the song that Ziva sings is Hallelujah, written by Leonard Cohen. It's a great song, and I encourage everyone reading this to look it up on youtube if you haven't already listened to it. Review Please!**


	3. Chapter 3

**AU high school story. Pairings are: Ziva/Gibbs, McGee/Abby, Tony/mm, I don't know.**

**AN: I just want to clarify something. I know I might have written it differently in the story, but the grades the characters are in are as follow: Gibbs-Senior/12****th****, Ducky-Senior/12****th****, Tony-Junior/11****th****, Abby-Sophomore/10****th****, Tim-Sophomore/10****th****, and Ziva-Sophomore/10****th****. Just wanted to clear that up.**

Not seconds after Ziva agreed to hang out with them, Abby, Tony, Tim, and Ducky came bursting through the auditorium door, laughing hysterically and out of breath. Ziva looked uncertainly at Gibbs.

"These are your friends, yes?" she asked him, eying the four of them warily. Gibbs smiled and laughed.

"These are my friends." He confirmed. "What took you guys so long?" Gibbs called out to them.

He watched as Abby stood up, still trying to get her breathing under control. His self-proclaimed best friend was back to her usual Goth standards-meaning that she was once again wearing her dog collar choker necklace, her jet black hair was up in pigtails, and her make-up was dark and heavy. She wore a tulle black ballerina type skirt, with a black t-shirt, and her usual chunky black heels. She smiled brightly at Gibbs, and gestured to Tim.

"Timmy got trapped into a conversation with Ms. Shepard." Abby explained. Ms. Shepard was the principal of Stillwater High. "Tony, Ducky, and I had to hide behind a corner and wait for her to leave before we could get to him."

Abby's eyes zeroed in on Ziva standing on the stage, and she looked at Gibbs pointedly. "Who's your friend?" she asked him, not rudely, but she didn't sound very friendly either. She turned her hard gaze to Ziva, as if to say, 'Who the fuck are you and why are you here?' It was very clear that she did not want Ziva there, if her 'Go die in a hole' glare was telling her anything. Ziva supposed that normally, it was a glare that often scared people.

Ziva barely batted an eye at her.

Tony, Tim, and Ducky came to stand by Abby, watching Ziva curiously.

"This is Ziva." Gibbs said, gesturing to her. "I just met her a minute ago. Ziva, this is Abby, Tony, Tim, and Ducky."

Ziva nodded her head in acknowledgement. "It is a pleasure to meet you all." She said politely.

Ducky looked at her curiously. 'Ducky' was only his nickname, his full name being Donald Mallard, but everyone called him Ducky. He was a short boy, with dusty brown hair and glasses, and a habit of telling long, winding stories from his childhood in Scotland, where he had lived until he was thirteen years old. He and Gibbs had become good friends in eighth grade, when Ducky first arrived in Stillwater.

"Your accent wouldn't happen to be Israeli, would it?" he asked, no malicious intent behind his question. Ducky simply liked to know stuff, and was very knowledgeable on many different subjects.

Ziva hesitated. "Uh, yes." She answered after a moment. Ducky smiled kindly at her.

"Don't take it the wrong way, I was just curious, my dear." He assured her. Ziva smiled hesitantly at him. She rather liked this _Ducky. _Besides Gibbs, he was the only other person at Stillwater High to show her any kindness.

Tony stared at the new girl-Ziva-in slight annoyance, as did Abby. They were here to remember Kate, and they did not need some stranger who had not known Kate at all butting in. Abby glared at Ziva with undisguised anger, which Ziva did not miss.

Glancing at Gibbs, Ziva smiled apologetically. "I think I should go to class now." She said, her eyes flickering to Abby's face. "I do not wish to interrupt." She walked off of the stage, grabbing her books from where they rested by the door.

"Ziva, wait!" Gibbs called out, chasing after her. She turned around to look at him, her eyebrow raised expectantly.

"You don't have to leave, if you don't want to." He said to her, genuinely meaning it. "Abby didn't mean to be rude. She's just upset right now. We all are-our friend Kate Todd died this Sunday."

All of the blood drained from Ziva's face. Oh no. These were that poor girl Caitlin's friends-Gibbs had been her friend. The only two people who had shown her any kindness in the entire school and soon they would hate her because Ari had killed their good friend…and because it was Ziva's fault that he had been on the road that night. Ziva suddenly felt sick to her stomach and had to swallow back the bile that rose up in her throat.

Ziva ran out of the room without a second glance back at Gibbs and his friends. Being late to first hour on her first day would surely be better than not showing up at all.

**Page Break**

Gibbs watched Ziva flee the auditorium, unsure of what he had said to make her runaway. He had only told her the truth-that Abby was normally nicer than how she was being, she was just upset about Kate's death. He frowned and then turned around to look at Abby. He didn't say anything, just gave her a pointed look, conveying without words, 'Now why did you have to go and do that?'

"Don't give me that look Gibbs." Abby warned. "_I _didn't make her leave. She chose to."

Gibbs sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Abby was one of his best friends, but sometimes her jealously got on even his nerves of steel. "I'm not trying to replace Kate, Abbs. That will never happen. Ziva just looked like she could use a friend or two."

Abby did look a little guilty after hearing Gibbs speak. Okay, so maybe she had been a little harsh on her. She hadn't meant to be so harsh…okay, so that was a lie. But she couldn't help it. It was her nature to be like that.

She would try harder to be nicer.

**AN: okay, I know it's short, I just wanted to get this chapter up so that I could get started with the next one. I'm trying to update regulary though and this chapter just happened to be a bit shorter than what they normally will be. Review Please!**

**Next chapter: the reason Ziva feels guilty for Kate's death…**


	4. Chapter 4

**AU high school story. Pairings are: Ziva/Gibbs, McGee/Abby, Tony/mm, I don't know.**

**AN: okay, so before you read the rest of this chapter, I would like to tell you guys all a story that is so freaking dumb it's funny. This is a true story. It happened to me.**

**So, the other night I spent the night at my friend's house with like eleven other girls (counting the girl who's house it was in the first place), because it was, you know, girls night. So, first thing that happens, my friend Elena (if you've read my story Que Sera, Sera, you know who she is because I've mentioned her before) starts hitting on my other friend Kasey, who's never hung out with all of us (my normal group of friends) together. And we're a bit overwhelming. So, then Chloe (the girl who's house we were at) and her sister Phoebe got into a fistfight and had to be separated. Then her mom was drunk and called us a bunch of nasty bitches. And then, Phoebe got into a Facebook fight with another girl who goes to a different school than all of us. So we all piled into my friend Anna's brother's van (who came to pick us up in the middle of a snowstorm) and started off to this girl's house, because Chloe was going to fight her, but then the roads were really bad and my friend Noelle was afraid we were going to get into a car accident, so Anna's brother took me, Noelle, Kasey, and Estee back to Chloe's house, and then the rest of them went to the girl's house to fight her. But this isn't before they were being stupid and getting high in the van (I didn't smoke but I was around it sooo…I was kinda high). So the four of us went back to Chloe's house, where we ate an entire bag of pizza rolls and an entire carton of cookies and cream ice cream, and some potato chips. Then everyone else comes back and it turns out that Chloe didn't fight the one girl, but they did get the van stuck in her driveway, which took them twenty minutes to get unstuck. Oh, and then, Chloe's boyfriend came over and they had sex on the couch while the rest of us were outside, and my friend Maddie walked in on them.**

**Some night, huh? Onward with the story.**

"And how was your day at school today, Zivaleh?"

Sitting at the dinner table with her father, Ziva looked up from her plate to look at him. Eli David was a man who did not miss much when it came to what was told to him and what was not told to him. So Ziva did not bother to lie about her answer.

"I hate this new school, Abba." Ziva said. Without even thinking about it, she glanced towards Ari's empty seat.

Eli followed her gaze. "Ziva," he said firmly, drawing her attention to him. "It was not your fault what happened." He told her, his brown eyes sympathetic. "You did not drive him to drink or to get on the road. It is not your fault."

"Yes, it is!" Ziva burst out angrily. Yes, it was all her fault…

_Early Sunday Morning_

"_Ari, you have had enough to drink." Ziva begged her brother. Ari sat on the couch in front of the T.V., an empty bottle of tequila beside him, and a three-quarter of the way gone bottle of scotch in his hand. He did not look at his younger sister as she spoke to him, instead taking another long drink from the bottle._

"_Go away, Ziva." He said to her. "You do not understand."_

_Ziva sat down beside her brother, moving the empty bottle out of her way, and leaning in towards him to speak in a soft voice. "Ari, I know you feel guilty about Tali's death, but it wasn't your-"_

"_SHUT UP!" Ari bellowed at her, jumping up from the couch to continue screaming at her. "JUST SHUT UP ZIVA! YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND!"_

_Ziva recoiled, her heart thumping loudly in her ears. This wasn't an Ari she was used to-the Ari she knew was sweet and funny and never screamed at her, never raised his voice at her. This new Ari was drunk-a lot-and was mean, angry, sad, and guilty. It was an Ari she was seeing more and more often._

_She missed the old Ari._

"_Ari-" Ziva started, but once again, Ari cut her off._

"_NO! DO NOT EVEN START IT ZIVA! IT IS MY FAULT THAT OUR LITTLE SISTER IS DEAD! ALL MY FAULT!" In his anger, Ari threw the partially empty bottle of scotch at the wall. It smashed against it, the broken shards falling to the floor. Ziva flinched and then stood up, glaring at her brother, rage bubbling up in her chest._

"_Do you think you are the only one who misses her?" she demanded. "We all miss her and we all cope with it in different ways, but you are the only one of us who is not coping well. Stop drinking all of the time!"_

"_NO!" Ari roared. "SHUT UP ZIVA!"_

_Finally, Ziva could take it no longer. "GET OUT!" she screamed at him, pointing towards the door. "GET OUT AND TAKE YOUR BOOZE WITH YOU!"_

_So Ari left and Ziva went to bed. And the next morning, they got a call from Ari, who was in jail. He took his car when he left and went driving and had gotten into an accident. He had killed the girl driving the other car…_

"Ziva!" Eli's tone was sharp as a knife, snapping her out of her memories. "Do not speak to me like that."

Ziva lowered her eyes guiltily. "Yes, I am sorry Abba." Yes, she was sorry…for screaming at Ari to leave and for the death of Caitlin Todd.

**Page Break**

Meanwhile at the Gibbs house, Gibbs was having another great dinnertime conversation with his father.

Jackson Gibbs only wanted his son to be happy, which Gibbs knew. But maybe if he wouldn't pressure his son so much to do what he wanted him to do, Gibbs and his father would have a much better relationship.

"-I'm just saying, you haven't made a definitive choice about a school yet, Leroy, and I'm worried that-" Jackson Gibbs was saying to his son, before Gibbs cut him off.

"Yeah, I know dad." He sighed moodily, looking down at the piece of pizza on his plate. Gibb's mother had died when he was nine, and the relationship between he and his dad had been strained ever since then.

Jackson Gibbs sighed as well and turned his attention back to his own slice of pizza, lost in his worries about his son's future. Gibbs' thoughts, however, turned to Ziva David.

She intrigued him, Ziva did. She was unlike any girl he had ever met before. She seemed so sad, somehow. And for some reason (he wasn't sure why; if Kate were here, she would know why) her sadness hurt him, cut him to the core. He didn't want her to be sad-he wanted her to be happy. He wanted to get to know her better and spend time with her. And more shockingly so, Gibbs wanted Ziva to want to be around him too-to like him, to want to spend time with him.

Gibbs sighed again. He really liked Ziva David.

**AN: Not much happened in this chapter, but I just wanted to get the whole Ziva-Ari thing explained. Also, never go see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with your dad, because you will feel incredibly awkward and uncomfortable sitting next to him in the theater during the multiple sex scenes and one rape scene. Review Please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AU high school story. Pairings are: Ziva/Gibbs, McGee/Abby, Tony/mm, I don't know.**

The next day at school, Gibbs went to the auditorium during first hour to try and find Ziva.

She wasn't there.

Gibbs felt strangely disappointed that she wasn't. He spent the rest of first hour roaming the school, glancing through the windows on the classroom doors to try and find her. He checked every single classroom, at the same time trying to avoid Ms. Shepard, who had a habit of walking the halls looking for students out of class without a hall pass, or who were skipping. There were a couple close calls in which he was almost caught, but it all paid off in the end.

He found Ziva in the Honors English III classroom, on the other end of the school. He sneaked a peak at her through the window in the door. She sat in the very front row, her eyes fixed on the teacher. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a French braid, and her face was clear of make-up. Not that she needed it. She was dressed very similar to what she had worn yesterday too-loose tan cargo pants and an olive shirt with three quarter length sleeves. Around her neck, he could glimpse the gold chain of a necklace. Gibbs thought she looked beautiful.

He leaned against the door and watched through the window. He watched how the other students treated her. They acted cold and unfriendly around her, purposely ignoring her, and only speaking to her when they had a nasty barb to throw at her. Yet Ziva seemed to take it all in stride, never once showing any flicker of emotion, her face a blank mask. Towards the end of the class, her eyes darted towards the door, and upon spotting him, her mask flickered, revealing a surprised look, but then moved quickly back into the blank mask. Gibbs smirked slightly and did a little half wave to her. She tilted her head in recognition towards him in return.

The bell rang two and half minutes later, and Ziva was the first out of her seat, her stuff already in her arms. She pushed out the doorway and as she moved past Gibbs, her free hand found his arm, and she pulled him along with her.

"Whoa, hey, there." Gibbs said in surprise as she continued to drag him behind her, as she walked doggedly through the hallways. For someone who looked like they were barely five feet tall, she was fairly strong. Ziva said nothing, but Gibbs could already tell where they were headed-the auditorium.

He said nothing, instead letting her continue to pull him along. Clearly something was wrong with Ziva-Gibbs could tell from how tense she looked.

Upon reaching the auditorium door, Ziva threw the door open, and released her hold on Gibbs' arm. She gestured for him to enter first, and he walked inside, Ziva following, and slamming the door shut behind her. Gibbs turned to face her, just in time to see her throw down her books, and let out what sounded like a cry of frustration. Gibbs watched her, his face expressionless, as Ziva beat the wall with her fists, grunting and huffing angrily. After a minute or so, she stopped, and breathing heavy, turned to look at Gibbs.

"I am sorry about that." She said to him, her eyes downcast as if she was ashamed he had seen her little outburst of anger. Gibbs shrugged; everyone had to get their anger out somehow, and if beating the shit out of the wall made her feel better, then so be it.

"If you owe anyone an apology, I think it'd be the poor wall you just beat up." Gibbs said, and Ziva's lips twitched upwards a bit in a slight smile. "Besides, never apologize. It's a sign of weakness."

It was quiet for a moment, before Ziva sighed, and her guard dropped. Gibbs looked at her carefully. She seemed so unhappy and frustrated and sad. Gibbs needed to do something to cheer her up.

"So tell me about what your life was like back in Israel." He said suddenly. Ziva looked at him oddly for a moment, before smiling hesitantly at him.

"Okay."

**Page Break**

In that hour they spent in the auditorium with each other, Gibbs learned more about Ziva David than probably anyone else in America had since she and her family had moved there.

She was sixteen years old, and had been born in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her family was Jewish, but not devoutly so. Her father had owned a small shop back in Tel Aviv and her mother had helped out in the shop, in addition to mending clothes for a fee for anyone who asked her to. Together, Ziva, her father, her mother, her younger sister Tali, and her half-brother Ari on her father's side had lived together in a medium sized house on the outskirts of the city. Growing up, Ziva had been trained as a pianist and a vocalist because her mother had wished her to, in addition to have to learn multiple foreign languages and martial art styles at the insistence of her father. She had also learned how to play the guitar, because she wished to know how. Her mother and father had barely gotten along for some reason Ziva didn't understand, but they never separated. Her mother had died when she was twelve years old, and from then on, it had been up to Ziva and Ari to take care of themselves and Tali, who at the time was only six, as their father had to start working full time in the shop to support them. Last spring, Tali and Ari had gone to the market in the city, and Tali had wandered off by herself without Ari noticing where she had gone. While he was looking for her, a bomb placed by Hamas terrorists went off in the market and thirty people were killed, another twenty-five injured. Tali had been found among the dead. She had only been ten years old. Three months afterwards, Ziva, Ari, and their father had packed up, and moved to America.

Ziva pulled the gold chain out of her shirt and leaned towards Gibbs, showing him was on the end of it-a small, golden Star of David. "This was Tali's," she said, her eyes full of pain at her sister's passing. "Ari found it a few feet away from her-body-at the market place. He gave it to me afterwards. He said that she would have wanted me to have it." She tucked her sister's necklace back into her shirt, her hand resting on the spot where it lay underneath her shirt protectively. "I wear it everywhere I go…it makes me feel closer to her, like she is right here with me."

For a moment, all of his grief about Kate was forgotten as Gibbs gazed at Ziva, trying to hide his amazement. She had lived a hard life, harder than anyone else he knew. It would have probably broken anyone else, yet here she was, living, thriving, and whole. She was a survivor and possibly one of the strongest people he had ever met. He couldn't help the admiration that bubbled up inside his chest.

It took him a minute to find his voice in order to speak. "I'm sorry about your sister."

Ziva smiled at him sadly. Then she suddenly smirked. "What happened to apologizing being a sign of weakness?" she challenged him. Gibbs had to chuckle-she had called him out on his own rule. Ziva let him finish chuckling before she continued speaking. "Now that you know all about me, tell me all about Gibbs and his life in Stillwater."

**AN: This is actually longer than my other chapters so far, as far as the amount of words goes, I think. If I have time, I might post a new chapter tomorrow-I have finals this week and we only take two per day, first thing in the morning, and then we go home. So, there might be a couple new chapters up this week, idk it depends on how things work out. XOXO, Ruthless.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AU high school story. Pairings are: Ziva/Gibbs, McGee/Abby, Tony/mm, I don't know.**

**AN: I am so sorry for the absence. My exam grades were…less than satisfactory, so my Mom grounded me from the computer. I have only recently been allowed back on it, and when I was finally allowed back on, I had four essays due for the novel we're reading in Honors English II, and a research paper on Dante Alighieri that had to be done. The essays are in, but I'm still working on the Dante paper.**

**Also, I would just like to make something clear. Sometimes the characters may do something that seems out of character than what they are like on the actual T.V. show, but I am just trying to make them seem more high-schooler like. I could have them all Just Say No to drugs and alcohol, like they might on the T.V. show, but really, does anyone know any high school student who has never drank anything alcoholic before? Or has never at least have been around drugs or done them themselves? I just want them to be realistic to what high schoolers are like today, and seeing as I am in high school, I figured that I should know what we're like.**

Ziva watched Gibbs as he shrugged evasively. "Not much to tell." He said to her in his low voice. "Born here. Lived here all my life with my dad-my mom died when I was nine." He shrugged again. "Other than that, there's not much to tell." He smiled at her. "Pretty boring, huh?"

"Is that all there is to be told about the mysterious Leroy Jethro Gibbs?" Ziva teased, her brown eyes glinting mischieviously. "There are no-what is the phrase-corpses in your closet?"

"Skeletons," Gibbs corrected, and Ziva rolled her eyes. "Skeletons in the closet. And as for my skeletons…" his smile faded some as an image of Kate popped into the forefront of his mind. "Well, they're pretty hard to find."

Ziva smiled at him in a way that made Gibbs think that she understood the concept of skeletons in the closet very well. It was a sad, worn smile. "Mine as well." She agreed with him softly. The face of Caitlin Todd unwittingly came to her mind. She closed her eyes briefly and pushed back the feelings of guilt and remorse that accompanied her image.

"So what is your father like?" Ziva asked Gibbs when she reopened her eyes, desperate to get off of the topic of 'skeletons in the closet'.

Gibbs hesitated before he answered. "I know he only wants the best for me, but…sometimes he just needs to back off a little bit, you know? He keeps pressuring me to make a decision, but I don't even know if I want to go to college. "

"Then what do you want to do?" Ziva tilted her head to the side slightly as she looked Gibbs over, waiting for his answer.

"I want to be a marine." He confessed, and Ziva smiled.

"You look like a marine." Ziva noted and Gibbs grinned at her. "You have the marine haircut, mindset, and I suspect you also have the heart of a marine too."

"What about you?" Gibbs asked. "What do you want to do?"

"I also want to help my country." Ziva answered promptly. "Had we stayed in Israel, I have no doubt I probably would have joined Mossad eventually. That was probably why my father insisted upon my learning all those languages and martial art styles-he probably hoped I would join. I would have been very well qualified to join and work there successfully too. But now that we have moved I think I would like to help my country in a different way. I am not sure how." She shrugged. "But I would also enjoy maybe working in law enforcement here, in America, perhaps."

The two new friends didn't say anything for a moment. Ziva played with her fingers, looking up at Gibbs quickly, her stomach full of-what was the American phrase for it?-butterflies. Gibbs was so very sweet and kind and cute…her face heated up slightly. Yes, she rather liked her first new friend in America.

**{Page Break}**

Tony could not understand what was going on with Gibbs.

He hadn't seen him in first hour or second hour, and come third hour, he had heard from Abby that Gibbs had strode into third hour grinning like the cat who had just ate the canary (those were Abby's words, not his own). He had not told Abby what he was so happy about, which was odd, because he usually told Abby everything. He hadn't told Ducky either, which was even odder. He just couldn't fathom what Gibbs could be so happy about, given what all had happened this week…Kate's death…her funeral.

Tony winced as he thought of Kate. There was a great, gaping hole in his chest where his heart was supposed to be, caused by her death and God damn did it hurt. His heart was gone-it was with Kate, buried six feet under the ground with her in her casket.

At lunch, the gang (minus Gibbs) was gathered at their usual table. Abby was babbling on excitedly to Tony and Tim about something computer related (Tim understood what she was saying more so than Tony did) and Ducky was reading some thick medical tome contentedly. No one was quite sure where Gibbs was, but no one was really too worried either-Gibbs was a big kid and he could take care of himself.

Abby stopped talking abruptly as she spotted something-or rather, _someones_-across the cafeteria. She frowned and Tony followed her gaze. Coming towards them from the other side of the cafeteria was Gibbs and that girl he had been talking to yesterday-Ziva, or whatever her name was. They were chatting as they walked, but Ziva's eyes kept darting nervously towards the table and Tony suddenly felt guilty for what an ass he'd acted like towards her yesterday. He glanced at Abby out of the corner of his eye-she did not look like a happy camper, not at all. _This might not turn out well, _Tony thought to himself as Gibbs and Ziva sat down at the table.

"You all remember Ziva, right?" Gibbs gave everyone at the table-besides Ziva-his patented 'Gibbs Glare', which in English translated roughly to 'Be nice or there will be consequences'. Tony was grudgingly impressed. Ziva must have made quite the impression on Gibbs if he was willing to glare at them all for her.

Ducky smiled genially at Ziva. "Hello, my dear." He said to her kindly, and Ziva smiled back shyly. The Israeli opened her mouth to speak.

"You are Ducky, correct?" her voice was tentative sounding.

"Indeed I am." Ducky said warmly.

Ziva seemed to gain more confidence at Ducky's kind words. The nervousness evaporated from her eyes slightly and her posture became stronger looking. "Then you must be Tony and Tim-" Tony nodded his head, not rudely, in acknowledgment and Tim smiled slightly and waved at her. "And you must be Abby."

Abby smiled frostily at her. Tony turned to look at Gibbs, who did not look happy at Abby's frosty greeting. A worried feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. Ducky looked wary as he looked inbetween the two of them and Tim looked out and out frightened.

Shit was going to fly between two of his best friends.

**Next Chapter: It's a bird, it's a plane…wait, no, it's verbal bitch fight.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AU high school story. Pairings are: Ziva/Gibbs, McGee/Abby, Tony/mm, I don't know.**

Lunch was an awkward and eventful affair for everyone sitting at the table-Ziva and Abby in particular.

The Goth girl glared at Ziva with undeniable hostility and Ziva returned her glare icily. Abby would often make pointed remarks whenever Ziva was speaking, to which Ziva would reply with a barb of her own. Gibbs sat at the table with a look somewhere between wariness and incredulousness on his face, while McGee sat fearfully, right in-between Ziva and Abby. Tony watched with an indescribable expression on his face and Ducky watched with a detached sort of interest as the two girls engaged in what Tony would later refer to as 'The Battle of the Bitches That No One Could Understand Because It Was All In A Foreign Language'. In the future, the pronouncement of this title was often followed by a loud _smack! _as Gibbs' hand made contact with the back of Tony's head. However, the results of Abby and Ziva's battle would bring about much more positive feelings with everyone.

It began after Abby purposely pronounced Ziva's last name as 'Day-vid', rather than 'Dah-veed', for the third straight time in a row. Ziva struck with the first barb.

"You know, Abby, Jethro told me you were very smart. However, clearly your intelligence must not be up to its normal standards if you cannot pronounce a very easily pronounced name correctly, especially after you have already heard how it is said. Either that, or your hearing must be not quite up to scratch."

There was an intake of my breath from Abby, and the goth girl's eyes burned like green fire. How dare she insult her intelligence? Abby's face remained neutral though as she replied, "It's up to _snuff, _Ziva, not scratch. Clearly, your intelligence must not be up to its normal standards either-however low they may be."

"_Kinyume chake, mimi kuwahakikishia, akili yangu wake viwango ya kawaida, na wao ni kabisa juu*._" Ziva said smugly in Swahili. "_És én valóban nagyon intelligens_.*" Ziva added in Hungarian. Her face was just as neutral as Abby's as she said, "You were saying something about my intelligence?"

"_Vous parlez une langue étrangère? Moi aussi_." Abby countered in fluent French.

"_Il semble que nous avons à la fois des choses en commun avec l'autre_.*" Ziva replied in equally fluent French.

"_Donc, il semblerait_.*" Abby's tone was frosty.

Tony looked incredibly confused. He leaned over towards Gibbs. "What are they saying?" he whispered to him, regretting the decision to take Spanish as a language class, rather than French like Abby and Gibbs had.

Gibbs looked at him and just shook his head. "I think it's better just to not get into to it right now." He turned his attention back to the two girls, who had reverted back to insulting each other in English. Gibbs couldn't help but feel like he was trapped between a rock and a hard place. Abby was his best friend...but he couldn't deny that he and Ziva were on the fast track to becoming friends. _If not something more, maybe, _he added silently in his head, then pushed the thought back. _If _there was something there-and there possibly was-it didn't matter because after what he had done-after he had caused Kate's death-he didn't deserve to have someone like Ziva, and Ziva didn't deserve to be with a killer.

While Gibbs was lost in his thoughts, Ziva was-what was the phrase-beating around the shrub? It was something like that. She quickly got directly to her point, asking Abby a question in rapid fire French, in order to keep the conversation private. "_Pourquoi es-tu une telle salope à moi_?" Why are you being such a bitch to me? She spoke again in a neutral tone of voice, trying to hid the hurt she was feeling. "_Qu'ai-je fait à vous de faire vous n'aimez pas tellement moi_?" What have I done to make you dislike me so much? Ziva was genuinely puzzled as to why the older girl did not like her.

Abby's expression softened slightly, the frost melting away. She was good at reading people and she could tell that Ziva was hurt by her words. Regret welled up inside her. Ziva really hadn't done anything to her to make her dislike. Abby didn't actually dislike her.

"_Je suis désolé_," Abby replied. _I'm sorry. _"_Je ne voulais pas être si rude et méchant. Mon ami vient de mourir et je crois que je viens pris ma colère et blessé à ce sujet sur vous. Je ne déteste pas vous, je ne vous connais pas encore assez bien pour que vous n'aimez pas._" _I didn't mean to be so rude and mean. My friend just died and I guess I've just been taking out my anger and hurt about it on you. I really don't dislike you-I don't know you well enough yet to dislike you._

"Then perhaps we should get to know each other better, yes? So then you can find a valid reason to dislike me." Ziva said in English to Abby, her voice taking on a teasing aspect. Now that she knew Abby didn't actually hate her for no reason, she was perfectly fine with her, and was very much interested in being friends with her. _Not that she won't have an actual reason to hate you when she realizes you caused the death of her friend Caitlin Todd, _a little voice in the back of her mind whispered to her. Ziva ignored it.

Abby smiled widely at her. "Yeah, let's do that." She agreed.

Tony and Tim were both confused. One minute the two girls had been sniping and bitching in French, and now they were talking about getting to know each other. What the hell?

Poor Tony and Tim. They were so confused.

**{Page Break}**

It was quickly decided by Gibbs, Ziva, Abby, Tony, Tim, and Ducky that the fifth hour really wasn't important and could be skipped in favor of going to the auditorium to hang out.

"You play the piano! And sing!" Abby squealed when she discovered that Ziva did indeed sing and play. She sat on the stage, her legs tucked beneath her modestly in order to prevent anyone from accidentally seeing up her skirt. She clapped her hands together excitedly. "Play something right now! Please," she added as an afterthought.

"Abby," Gibbs chimed in. "Ziva doesn't have to play if she doesn't want to."

"No, Jethro, it is fine." Ziva said with an easy smile. Already sitting on the piano bench, she turned herself around to face the keys. Playing a quick scale as a warm-up, she launched into the first song that came to her mind.

Gibbs watched as Ziva's hands flowed across the keys, a jazzy tune coming from the piano. "Ooh, ooh, ooh," she sang, her voice seductive sounding. Whether she meant to sound seductive or if her voice just came out that way Gibbs didn't know, but it either way it was working-his pants suddenly felt uncomfortably tight.

"A guy what takes his time, I'll go for any time

I'm a fast movin' gal who likes them slow

Got no use for fancy driving, wanna to see a guy arriving in low

I'd be satisfied, electrified to know a guy what takes his time

"A hurry-up affair, I always give the air

Wouldn't give any rushing gent a smile

I would go for any single who would condescend to linger awhile

What a lullaby would be supplied to have a guy who takes his time, ooh

"A guy what takes his time, I'd go for any time

A hasty job really spoils a master's touch

I don't like a big commotion, I'm a demon for slow motion or such

Why should I deny that I would die to know a guy who takes his time

"There isn't any fun in getting something done

If you're rushed when you have to make the grade

I can spot an amateur, appreciate a connesseur in trade

Who would qualify, no alibi, to be the guy who takes his time

"Ooh, ooh…" Ziva's voice trailed off, and the music faded away, leaving the six teens in the echoing silence of the auditorium. The silence, however, was quickly replaced by Abby's, Tony's, Ducky's, Tim's, and Gibb's admiring applause. Gibbs let out a whistle of admiration, and Ziva blushed, looking down at the ground bashfully.

Perhaps Stillwater High wasn't so bad after all.

**AN: So that's the end of the chapter. Sorry it's taken me awhile to update-I've been busy these past few weeks. Me and my crazy social life, yeah you know how it is…just kidding, I haven't done anything remotely social in like the past week. School has been keeping me busy.**

**Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. Leave me a review, and tell me your questions, comments, concerns. **

**XOXO**

**Ruthless**


	8. Hindsight, Part One

**AU high school story. Pairings are: Ziva/Gibbs, McGee/Abby, Tony/mm, I don't know. Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, NCIS and its characters belongs to…whoever owns NCIS.**

**AN: So, it's been a while since I've updated, and I'm sorry for that. School has been a pain in my ass, softball has been keeping me busy, not to mention the fact that I have an addiction to Twitter that is kind of getting out of hand. But softball season is over now and I've only got a few more days of school, like ten or twelve, and then after that my schedule is fairly clear. **

Hindsight, Part One

How did the phrase go? Oh, yes. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Ziva knew that only too well now.

They never should have left Israel. They should have stayed. Her entire family-her father, Ari, and her. They should have stayed in Israel no matter what. Then, maybe this could have been prevented. Then maybe she would be standing here with blood on shirt and a gun in her hands.

And maybe her brother wouldn't be dead.

**_Three days earlier_**

It was the moment Ziva had been dreading. She finally had to come clean to Gibbs. About Ari. About what had happened to Caitlin Todd. About how it was her fault he had been on the road in the first place. Ari's trial began in three days, and Gibbs, Ziva knew, would be there. As would Abby, Ducky, Tony, and Tim. As would she. It would be better for her to come clean now, rather than let them discover it in the courtroom.

"Jethro," Ziva's tone was hesitant, fearful even. "I need to talk to you."

Gibbs looked at Ziva, his blue eyes intent on her. In the short time he had known Ziva, he had never once heard her sound like that-nervous and unsure of herself. She was always strong and confident. It was slightly unnerving, but he put that behind him. "Yeah?"

Ziva looked down at the ground. "I-I have not been completely honest with you." She confessed, swallowing back the wave of nervousness that threatened to burst. "I have to tell you something."

"Fire away," Gibbs said. The two of them sat in the auditorium, all by themselves. It was third hour.

"My-" Something seemed to get caught in Ziva's throat, and Gibbs watched as she took a deep breath, her eyes glued to the ground. She looked up at Gibbs, and her eyes were curiously blank and controlled looking. "My brother-he is the one who killed your friend Caitlin Todd. He was the other driver who hit her car."

It was like the entire world stopped spinning. Gibbs stared at Ziva uncomprehendingly for a moment, trying to process what she'd said-_brother? Kate? Other driver?_-when it all suddenly clicked in his mind. Her brother had been the drunk driver who had hit Kate's car. An image of Kate unwittingly flashed to the forefront of his mind, accompanied by a surge of pain and grief. Gibbs opened his mouth to say something-anything-but no sound came out. He just stared at Ziva, who looked back at him with a hidden expression.

"And-and-and…it was my fault." She whispered shamefully. To her annoyance, her eyes began to water with unshed tears. She wiped them away, and stared down at her feet, unwilling to look at Gibbs.

Gibbs finally found his voice, as he processed this new information.

"How?" he asked flatly. Ziva did not have to ask what he meant by 'how'.

"My brother, Ari, he had been drinking…he was so drunk." Ziva cleared her throat, trying to hold back tears. She would not cry in front of Gibbs. She would not look weak. "He had been drinking very heavily since Tali died. He blamed himself. I tried to talk to him about it, but instead he started screaming at me. I-I became angry and we argued. Finally, I yelled at him just to leave and take his booze with him. So he left. And then a few hours later…"

She didn't finish her sentence. Gibbs already knew that part of the story.

So they all had a hand in Kate's death. Ari. Ziva. And himself. They all had played some contributing factor. Gibbs, for being drunk and calling Kate to come pick him up in the first place. Ziva, for screaming at her drunken brother to leave. And Ari, for deciding to get behind the wheel while he was drunk, for running his car into Kate's, pushing her car off of the road, and into a tree. They were all, in some way or manner, partially guilty of Kate's death. Ari more so than Ziva or Gibbs, of course.

Suddenly, Gibbs couldn't think. He couldn't breathe. He just-he had to get out of the auditorium. Away from Ziva. Away from this Goddamned school.

"I have to go." He blurted out, and dashed out of the auditorium without another word. Ziva watched him go, equally silent.

It was not until Ziva could no longer hear Gibbs' echoing footsteps as he sprinted across the school that she began to cry.

**'_'page Break**

Gibbs ran. He ran without consciously thinking of his destination. But somehow he ended up at Kate's grave.

He dropped to his knees in front of the headstone, gently resting his forehead against the cool marble stone. "I'm sorry, Kate." He spoke to the headstone. "I'm so, so sorry. This is my fault. Ziva may have told her brother to get out, but I was the one who called you to come and get me. I'm the reason you were on the road that night. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Softly, he hit his head against the headstone repeatedly.

"It's not your fault Gibbs."

Gibbs paused. That sounded a lot like…he turned around. And blinked. Then rubbed his eyes, trying to make sure that he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.

In front of him stood his best friend Caitlin Todd.

"Kate?" he breathed. He stood up and reached towards her, stopping a few feet short. "Kate? Is that you? This isn't possible. You're not-you're not real, are you?"

Kate smiled at him. She was dressed the way she had been the last time he saw her-jeans and a t-shirt, with a hoodie sweatshirt. She looked so-_alive_ and _happy _that Gibbs could hardly believe his own eyes.

"I'm real enough to you." Kate countered. "Isn't that enough for you?"

"Well…yeah." Once again, Gibbs was suddenly overcome with overwhelming guilt. "Kate, I'm-" he started to say, but was cut off by her protests.

"Gibbs, if you're going to say I'm sorry and blame yourself for my death one more time, I'm going to haunt you like you wouldn't believe was possible." Kate said to him firmly. She took a few steps forward, until she was right in front of him. "Now listen up, okay? I don't have much time."

"Okay." Gibbs nodded dumbly.

"What happened-the accident, my death-none of it was your fault, okay? None. Of. It." She enunciated clearly. "Ari Haswari was drunk and smashed into my car and killed me. You were not behind the wheel. You were not in the car with him. You were, albeit, incredibly drunk-" Kate looked at him sternly and Gibbs felt his neck flush in shame. "-but you weren't out there driving on the road. It. Was. Not. Your. Fault. Nor was it Ziva's. I don't hate you and I'm not mad at you for anything. Ari is solely to blame here. Got it?"

"Got it." Gibbs stared at his best friend in amazement. He could not believe this was happening. He was actually getting a chance to talk to Kate. He couldn't believe it.

"Alright, good. Now a couple of other things before I have to go back-"

"Go back where?" Gibbs asked. Kate looked at him like the answer was obvious.

"Heaven, of course. Now, back on track, make sure Abby doesn't overwork herself with all of her projects and charities, and make sure she doesn't stay up all night drinking Caf-Pows, and listening to music. Make sure Tim knows to stand up for himself, and don't let Tony act like he owns him. Encourage him to write. He's going to be a good writer someday, Tim is. I just know it. Keep Tony from acting like a complete jerk, 'kay? Tell him that he's a good person, and that we all love him, no matter how much of a complete douche his dad acts like. And that if he doesn't treat any girls right, I'm coming back to haunt him. Listen to Ducky when he tells his really long stories about life back in Scotland and help him manage his mother when she starts talking about wanting grandchildren soon."

Gibbs laughed. "Anything else?"

"Yeah." Kate leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek. His cheek was oddly warm where she had placed her lips on it. "Take care of yourself, Gunny. Take care of everyone else too. Don't spend too much time in your woodshed, building furniture that you never use. And tell Ziva that it isn't her fault I'm dead too." Kate leaned in even closer. "Don't let her slip through your fingers, Gibbs. She's worth it, I promise you." Gibbs didn't have to ask twice to know that she was referring to Ziva.

Kate turned around and Gibbs knew without a doubt that this was the last time he was going to see his best friend for a very long time. On impulsive, her called out her name. "Kate!"

She turned around halfway to look at him. "Yeah?"

"Love you. Thanks for always being there for me. I'll miss you, until-" he thought about it for a moment, trying to find the right word. He sighed exasperatedly and Kate laughed. "I'll see you whenever we happen to meet next, 'kay?"

"Okay." Kate laughed. "Bye Gibbs. I'll see you around."

And then she was gone, back to Heaven, or wherever she'd come from.

Gibbs thought about what she'd said about Ziva, about not letting her slip through his fingers. Instantly, he knew what he needed to do.

He began to run.

**To be continued…**

**AN: I suck. I know it. Trust me, I know it. I'll try to update soon; as soon as I get this chapter uploaded, I'm starting on the next, I promise you, I am. I don't know if I'm going to update this weekend, because graduation is this weekend, and I have plans (of the drunken kind), so I'll try to get the next chapter up by Friday at the earliest, Saturday at the latest. So…yeah. **

**There's a little review button down there. You should try clicking on it. Maybe even leave a review(:**

**XOXO**

**Ruthless(;**


	9. Hindsight Part Two

**AU high school story. Pairings are: Ziva/Gibbs, McGee/Abby, Tony/mm, I don't know. Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, NCIS and its characters belongs to…whoever owns NCIS.**

**A big thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter-especially ****Fear Undefined.**

**Alright, now that that's out of the way, we can move forward! Onward with the story!**

**Hindsight, Part Two**

Ziva could not stand to stay at the school any longer after she finished crying. She grabbed her stuff and hurried out of the auditorium, sneaking past the front office, and outside. Once she was outside of the building, she full out began sprinting towards her house, which was only a block or two away. She silently berated herself all the way.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid! _She thought. _How could I be so stupid as to think that I would still have friends once everyone found out the truth? I hate Ari, I hate this school, I HATE ALL OF IT!_ Her anger and grief pushed her faster, and she arrived home in less than half the time it would have normally taken her.

Her father was not home when she let herself in. But Ari was.

Her brother sat on the couch, his eyes glazed over and glued to the T.V. His face was unshaven, his clothes looked dirty, and Ziva could smell him where she stood by the door. There was, predictably, a beer in his hand, and many more empty bottles littered the floor, and the coffee table around him. Her brother was drunk. It took one look at him for Ziva to snap.

"_I HATE YOU!" _Ziva shouted at him in Hebrew. Ari merely looked up at her, his expression confused and disinterested. "_I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! I hate you for being drunk all the time, I hate you for killing that poor girl! I hate you, because by killing Caitlin Todd you have taken away the few friends that I had here!"_ She stopped suddenly, breathing heavily, the corners of her eyes itching with more tears.

Ari merely raised an eyebrow at her. _"That is what you are mad about?" _he questioned. _"You are mad because I made you lose a couple friends? That is why you 'hate' me?"_ The word hate was said mockingly.

"_No!" _Ziva snapped. _"That is not the only reason why I hate you. I hate you because you killed a girl, and so far you have shown no remorse or regret. I hate you because you drink all the time. I hate you because you made me lose my _only _friends here. Not a couple. _Only._"_ She finished bitterly. She blinked back her tears.

"Why should I feel bad?" Ari asked her suddenly.

Ziva blinked at him. "What?"

"Why should I feel bad about killing the girl?" her brother repeated. Ziva could hardly believe what he'd asked her.

"Why should you not feel bad?" Ziva hissed, advancing on him. "You cut short the life of a girl who was without a doubt going to be very successful in whatever she chose to do. You stole away her chance to have children, get married, fall in love, travel, see the world, graduate from school. You took her life before she ever really was able to live it. You killed her and you should feel bad because _it was wrong_!"

Ari stood up, swaying slightly before he steadied himself. He looked down at Ziva, condescension clear in his eyes. He laughed at her.

"Is that the best you can come up with?" he sneered. "She was just one girl, one stranger who I did not know or care about. I killed her. So what? Why should I care?"

Ziva was struck with a sudden horror, as she stared up at the thing that used to be her brother. Who was this-this monster? What had happened to the brother that she remembered? He truly did not feel bad. He had taken an innocent life, and he did not care about it in the least bit. She took a step back from him.

"You are a monster." She breathed. Ari laughed again. He turned around towards the kitchen, no doubt going to grab another beer.

"Tell me something I do not know, sister." He called behind his shoulder.

Ziva blinked back tears. "Tali would be disappointed in you." She said to him.

Ari stopped in his tracks.

"She idolized you." Ziva's voice broke. "She looked up to you, you, her kind and caring, protective big brother. What would she say if she saw you now?"

"Do not bring her into this." Ari's voice was low and deadly sounding. "Shut-up."

Ziva ignored him. "She would be so disappointed. She would love you still, no matter what-but she would be so disappointed." Ziva continued, not looking at her brother. "She would-_benzona!_" she swore in Hebrew as her shoulder burst into pain. She dropped to her knees and raised her head to look at her brother.

There was a gun in his hands.

Ziva's first thought was, _Where did he get a gun?_ Shortly followed by, _Oh God, he has a gun._

"I said 'shut-up.'" Ari's voice was still deadly calm and quiet.

Blood from her left shoulder dripped down onto the floor, forming a puddle that was quickly becoming larger. "Brother," Ziva gasped, clutching the wound with her right hand, trying to put pressure on it to try and slow the bleeding. "Why?"

Ari didn't answer. Instead he walked back towards her, until he was standing right in front of her. He raised the gun to his head and smiled. His finger pressed lightly on the trigger.

"Ari, no-" Ziva cried, but was drowned out by the sound of a gunshot.

Ari's empty body fell, crashing down onto the coffee table. The gun landed in front of Ziva, who picked it up numbly, and set it aside. She reached out a hesitant hand to her brother's still warm body. She swallowed back tears.

"_Brother_."

**To be continued…**

**AN: Alright, I'll admit it, this wasn't my best chapter. In fact, it was probably my worst. But now that this is all almost out of the way, I can start moving onto to the good stuff-the Zibbs stuff(-: Please leave a review. I don't mind if you leave constructive criticism, but if you are going to be utterly rude and use harsh language, I would really rather you didn't. *Stares pointedly at certain reviewer and coughs awkwardly* You know who you are. And you aren't old enough to be using that kind of language, so shame on you for that. I don't care if you don't like the story, that's your opinion, and I respect that. But if you can't say/review anything nice, don't say/review anything at all. Or at least say it in the nicest way possible.**

**Review Please!**

**XOXO**

**Ruthless**


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